Until a few months back, it seemed the larger portion of Muslims were drifting towards the Congress. But that has changed since the party began losing credibility because of the scams the UPA government at the Centre is riddled with. The Muslim vote is up for grabs again.
Many saw the Samajwadi Party as the natural choice of the community, but how could Mayawati let go of the opportunity to grab whatever little she could? She shot off a letter to the prime minister seeking reservation for Muslims, sent late in the night, hours before Union minister Salman Khurshid disclosed on October 31 that the government was in the process of reworking its reservation policy for Muslims.
What followed was a blatant game of one-upmanship. “The UPA isn’t serious about reservation for Muslims,” charged Mulayam Singh Yadav, and called Khurshid’s statement an “election stunt”. “If they are sincere,” he said, “why can’t they implement the recommendations of the Sachar and the Ranganath Mishra committees?”
BJP spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi played his part in the blame game, accusing all political rivals—the Congress, the BSP and the Samajwadi Party—of taking Muslims for a ride. He says Muslims have better representation in government jobs in BJP-ruled states like Madhya Pradesh. He claims the number of Muslims in government jobs has risen by 11 per cent in Madhya Pradesh, while in Uttar Pradesh it has gone down by 42 per cent during the Mulayam and Mayawati regimes.
However, playing spoilsport in Uttar Pradesh is the Peace Party, founded by 56-year-old Mohammad Ayub as a political outfit for and by Muslims. But since then, it has inducted members from other communities and even given election tickets to notorious criminals-turned-politicians, all in the name of winning seats.
Analysts, however, say the Muslim community would prefer tactical voting—going for the potential winner rather than wasting its votes.
